Pushi is the Papiamento word for cat.

I am a 67 year-old retired naval officer. My wife and I live in Socorro, New Mexico with our three cats and one dog. My three children, of whom I am very proud and none of whom has ever been in jail or convicted of a crime, are grown and on their own.

I am a third-generation Texan, born on Cedar Bayou near Goose Creek. A great-grandfather on my father's side served in the Army of the Republic of Texas.

Before the Navy, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. After the Navy, I worked in the insurance and oil industries, mostly in the risk management, safety, fire-protection, and environmental areas.

I am very conservative politically--and in every other way. Ike was the first person that I voted for for president. In 1978, I actually ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives, Eighth District of Texas. Needless to say, I did not win. Even at that early date, I advocated the privatization of Social Security and replacing the income tax with a federal sales tax. There was a certain Congressman Bill Archer present in the audience one evening when I first touted the sales tax idea.

I am the most politically incorrect person you could ever meet. My philosophy on world affairs is pretty plain and simple. The United States should do whatever it has to do, economically, politically, diplomatically, and/or militarily, to preserve our system of government and our way of life. We should get out of the United Nations and get the United Nations out of the United States. We should never have anything to do with a war crimes tribunal or a world court.

I am for adopting Singapore's system of controlling illegal drugs--execute the dealers and put the users in rehabilitation until they are rehabilitated. One only has to research the issue on the internet to learn that Singapore has the least drug problem of any republic or democracy in the world.

I am unalterably opposed to abortion and for capital punishment. One involves innocent life. The other doesn't. I could compromise on the capital punishment, if a life sentence meant spending the rest of ones life in prison without the possibility of returning to society.

I have had some unusual and unique experiences in seeing and/or meeting important people beginning while I was in the Navy and continuing in civilian life. In 1958, President Eisenhower spoke to me and sat in front of me in chapel. In 1959, the queen, crown prince, and crown princess of Thailand came aboard my ship in Bangkok. I met Robert Kennedy and Ethel and conversed with them in Hong Kong when they came aboard my ship. I met John Cabot Lodge, Henry Cabot Lodge's brother, a reserve captain, during his active duty for training in Yokosuka, Japan. I met Admiral Thomas Moorer on several occasions while he was Commander, Seventh Fleet. I met and talked to Admiral Arleigh Burke while at the Naval Destroyer School in Newport. I met Senator John Tower. I saw President Ford and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt at the White House when I was on duty at the Pentagon in 1976. About that same time I saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. I flew candidate-to-be George H. W. Bush in my airplane from Jasper, Texas to Houston--in 1978. I met and talked to Bill Brock, Jack Kemp, and Pierre DuPont and saw candidate Ronald Reagan several times in Houston. I spent a day with former Congressman Dornan in Houston in 1978 while campaigning for Reagan. While working on Aruba, I saw Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the crown prince. More recently, I met and spoke with Senator Pete Domenici and Governor Owens of Colorado.

I am a life member of both the American Legion and the Naval Reserve Association.

I belong to the National Rifle Association. I am a strong gun ownership advocate, but I am not a hunter. I like animals--both domestic and wild. I realize that hunting is an important part of game preservation and management, and I don't condemn others for hunting. I did my hunting and killing during the Vietnam War.

I support our local animal shelter's spaying and neutering program. One way I do this is, instead of sending flowers to funerals, I make memorial contributions to the animal shelter in deceased persons' names.

I am doing some volunteer work in the laboratory of a professor and research atmospheric chemist in the local university--New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, an excellent school and one of about the top dozen technological institutions in the country.

I am a member of, and an elder in, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. So, in the opinion of some people, I am a member of the fanatical religious right. That's alright. I try my best to live by the golden rule, and I know I am a sinner saved by faith in Jesus Christ. If you haven't tried it, don't knock it.